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April 3, 2024
Happy Wednesday, CIPM Team. I am taking over for Yu on the posts while we are doing the challenge, so please share your stories with me! Here are the totals from the first two weeks of our Miles for Wellness Challenge:
I am so excited to see the warm weather, even though the rain is coming again this week. I know our teams have been getting a lot of miles in the first two weeks, and I am starting to get pictures of activities from the Wellness Challenge. Kayla got out in the sunshine and did an Easter Egg Hunt with her daughter, Ellie, and they got a TON of walking in over the weekend together! It makes it even more challenging when you’re hefting a 4-year-old around, also, and was a great photo opp!
For my first Wellness Wednesday post, I wanted to let you all know why I decided to lead this Wellness Challenge, and a little of my background as a swim coach. I have found coaching to be one of the most satisfying ways to stay engaged with my health and to help younger generations focus on the enjoyable part of being active and keeping moving. Swimming brings me joy and a sense of satisfaction for what my body can do, and so I enjoy sharing that with others. So as captain for the challenge, I get to encourage people to find that joy and focus on taking care of themselves, physically and mentally.
I swam as a child, and when I was staying at home with my kids several years ago, I went back to swimming. My joints were starting to ache and I wasn’t great at keeping up with the kids on the playground, so I started by just swimming laps at Pullen Pool with the moms in the neighborhood. We did an open-water race in one of the lakes here locally, and then I just kept going. As an adult, it became my self-care. It gave me 2 hours a couple of times a week to have some peace and quiet, and it did wonders for my soul. I was a better mom because I was taking care of myself, and my kids could see me as successful in something besides being their mom. Exercise is always more about that for me than it is about calories and gains and muscles. But as I became more involved in swimming, I started coaching, and I led a team for a relay in Portland, coached year-round swimming, and took part in a fundraising campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. I loved working to motivate people and be a part of a bigger team than just me as an individual swimmer. I coached for 6 years and also helped train other open-water swimmers in Raleigh who were preparing for races or just swimming for fun.
I loved to come home from a race in another city and tell the swimmers on my team all about it– I swam in New York (twice), Charlotte, Chicago, Charleston, and Portland, and I got to see some of the most beautiful bodies of water in the country. I swam across the Hudson with Caroline Kennedy and her daughter (but I didn’t meet them; they were just there). I ate Chicago ribs at 10:30 in the morning on the shore of Lake Michigan after my first 5K. I took my kids to museums and historical sites on every one of the trips and we have memories and souvenirs that we will keep always. But the lesson I was most proud of teaching my kids and my swimmers was that I was not just the mom, I was a person who needed to take care of herself… I know it’s cliche, but I was putting my oxygen mask on, so that I was there to help them with theirs. My swimmers knew I was a mom and their coach, but they saw that swimming could be something you used as an outlet to care for your body and your mind until you were old and wrinkled. I loved that. Now I see on social media that my oldest swimmers are applying to colleges and swimming in state and national competitions, and I hope they take this joy and pride in themselves forward into their adult lives. I am glad that I was an example of that for so many kids and even adults I met in the open-water swim community.
Now, I want to help everyone at CIPM focus on that balance. We spend so much time sitting in front of a computer or in meetings and not doing enough for our health. Between now and May, we can focus on looking for ways to keep our blood pumping, work up a little sweat, and enjoy something out in the fresh air. Please feel free to share some photos of what you are doing to get moving! I want to see selfies on the stationary bike, pictures of your run club or walking buddies, and hikes at the lake. I am very proud of you all for making this commitment. Good luck, Team Bumblebee and Team Green Lacewing!
Carrie Rogers
Here are three pictures from my life as a swimmer. Left to right: waiting to start the Portland Bridges Relay, After the Lady Liberty Swim, and at Pullen Park for my nephew's first swim.
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